Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

Hi allAt first I have to say I used to use Ubuntu (and Fedora at first) and now I am using openSUSE and because of some problems I've decided to use Arch.I know about Gnu/Linux but I am not familiar with Terminal (never want to learn it!).Ubuntu installed on sda8 as /root and sda9 as swap. How do I format it and install Arch (what is mount points_I've never heard about that[1])? I don't want to have any other /home or /var partition.If I'd had a /home partition on sda10, how would it have been mounted to /root partition (please pay attention there are some data exists on it)?I've read "Beginners' Guide/Installation". But it is not easy when I decided to install Arch (I'm afraid about my data).If my words is not clear to understand, tell me to explain my problem.Thank you all--------------[1]If I want to tell the truth, I know something about mount points. But it seems the Arch developers decided to remove installer which include some tools.

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

IMHO, if you don't want to learn how to use a terminal then Arch is not for you at all. The package manager, pacman, is a terminal tool so it will be hard to setup or maintain your system without using the terminal. And without the old installer, the installation is all terminal based so you have a problem. Arch is geared toward competent linux users so maybe you should stick with something else until you're not afraid of the terminal.

edit: spelling

Last edited by bgc1954 (2012-09-29 17:01:58)

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

Can you post the output of fdisk -l /dev/sda ??It does not matter from which distribution you do that.

As an aside, I assume that English is not your first language. You said

I know about Gnu/Linux but I am not familiar with Terminal (never want to learn it!).

I am not certain if you meant you have never learned it, and plan to learn it in the future; or if you meant that you have no intention to learn it.

If you meant the formerlatter (you do not intend to learn it), allow me to respectfully suggest that Arch might not be the distribution for you. We tend to use the console a great deal.

Edit: Snaked by bgc1954 Edit 2: latter/ former -- thank you Solvialle

Last edited by ewaller (2012-09-29 19:35:56)

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael FaradayYou assume people are rational and influenced by evidence. You must not work with the public much. -- Trilby----How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

May I suggest that before you do *anything* whatsoever, you back up your data? Even if you were confident you knew exactly what you were doing, you should back up your data before embarking on a new install. Since you are not confident, this is obviously particularly important. You do not want to wipe your data while experimenting and no help anybody gives you here can protect you from the possibility of a mistake. If the data matters, back it up. This is good advice anyway - hard drives fail, software causes errors, stuff happens.

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

OK, I see major problem here:You say don't want to learn terminal ever or you don't know it right now and you want to learn? If you don't know what partition mount points are, you don't know you way around CLI, you're newbie without a clue etc. that's totally fine but if you don't want to learn all of this (and much more) you're pretty much done here. Arch won't work for you. You don't need to be geek to use Arch but you need to want to learn. It also helps if you are a special kind of person, person who like to tweak things, who like to take care of his/her OS. Maintenance of Arch is not ending with it's installation it's just the beginning - a lot of people doesn't understand that.

Friendly advice: go and try Arch in VirtualBox before you do a real installation.

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

cfr wrote:

May I suggest that before you do *anything* whatsoever, you back up your data? Even if you were confident you knew exactly what you were doing, you should back up your data before embarking on a new install. Since you are not confident, this is obviously particularly important. You do not want to wipe your data while experimenting and no help anybody gives you here can protect you from the possibility of a mistake. If the data matters, back it up. This is good advice anyway - hard drives fail, software causes errors, stuff happens.

Honstly, to the OP, you should take note of this. I'm an experienced Linux user, and still managed to trash my system leading to two days recovery (with a backup) most of which was done in a terminal, and a lot in a busybox shell. As it happens, I've managed an almost complete recovery, but I'd hate to have to try and talk an inexperienced user through it.

If you don't want to use the terminal, you should really consider a different distro.

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

@Known. What do you use your computer for? Are you a scientist/engineer that needs to run/develop code for research? Are you putting together a gaming machine? Are you just looking for something to run productivity software (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, presentation tools, etc)?

In terms of intuitive setup and maintenance, it doesn't get much better than Ubuntu in the Linux world. Arch is "user friendly" in the sense that it is very well organised, well documented, has a great community supporting it, and generally behaves the way it should. However, Arch is not "intuitive": one must develop a specialized knowledge and skill set to administer an Arch system competently and efficiently. Although, once you've pushed yourself past the initial learning curve, I would say that maintaining an Arch system requires no more effort than Ubuntu.

- Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement. -- Mark Twain- There's a remedy for everything but death. -- The wise fool, Sancho Panza- The purpose of a system is what it does. -- Anthony Stafford Beer

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

Me: Oh, what is it?She: It's Arch Linux?Me: WOW... Beautiful! How does it work?She: It's too complicated for you to learn!Me: No! It's not right!She: Yeah! I'm going to figure it out! Tell me how you install a software from source!Me: Hmm mm...!She: what about downloading by Axel....Me: [again] Hmm mm...She: Just copy a Goddamn file PLEASE!Me: [in this scene I just had a sad face!] ...--------------------------------------------------------Yes {@tomk}, you see what my reason is. But in real the language was Persian and I translate it for you! Cause I'm Persian and want to learn English and Spanish {@ewaller} (But I know I can't talk Spanish in this ten years)! And if you want to know what happened in next scene just tell me!

I know terminal is NOT comfortable for me! But it is not a good reason to use YaST at all! No matter what (I don't know what I have to say in this time)! We say "توفیق اجباری نسیبم شد" Means I had to do it because it was a "must to do"!

I'm not a geek and I don't use my computer for some advanced works or something{@bsilbaugh}! When I migrated from Windows XP to Ubuntu I found every thing different and I do love it! A friendly interface was something that I didn't experience before!openSUSE is a good option but I don't comfortable with it.

I have Windows Seven on my machine installed on C:\ and three other NTFS partitions but I don't use it anymore.It is about 78GiB free space I installed Ubuntu on it before and I want to install Arch instead of Ubuntu. (Forgive me @ewaller. I'm not home and can't access my Desktop Computer!)Every thing must be started on a point and I found my point{@bgc1954}.As @masteryod said Arch is a start to experience real free world!

@MisterAnderson I tried to use Chakra but it was... .

I think she didn't want to mock me. She just want to let me start from somewhere!

Guys please help me install Arch on my machine!I hope I could answer all of your questions.

Oh, Do you know anything about Grub2. I just learned how to set up Legacy 0.97!

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

Re: Partitioning is not easy, ain't it?

Known wrote:

Guys please help me install Arch on my machine!

The Beginners' Guide has all of the information that you need to install Arch. It has been provided by the community so that these boards, IRC and the ML do not become clogged with people asking the same questions over and over again. Installation is the most thoroughly documented aspect of using Arch Linux; if you encounter any difficulties, ask here with specific questions and include all of the relevant information.